Difference & Fear

We are all conditioned by the culture that we live in. The media has a great influence on how people are viewed. Using difference, often a difference perceived as negative. Using a blemish--a disability--physical, cognitive or emotional has become a shorthand for bad, evil, and undesirable. Some of our cultural perceptions have a long history. Disabilities that have an emotional element, especially those that cause people to act in unpredictable ways such as schizophrenia still cause unease in people. In other times such individuals were considered to be cursed or possessed. Even knowing that there is a chemical cause sometimes doesn't offset a constant reinforcement of this nature.

Familiarity is the cure for the fear. Us and them disappears when you can spend time with unfamiliar groups. There is a scientific concept called "motor-neurons" that suggests that if you gaze into the eyes of another person actual physical changes occur on both brains as a result of the the experience. This is one of the drawbacks of the pervasive us of technology as people are physically removed from actual presence with one another. As actual meeting places libraries can serve to restore some of the human connection.